Silver Blood (Series of Blood Book 1) by Emma Hamm (bill gates book recommendations .TXT) 📕

had panicked and taken control. And why it wasn’t talking to her at all. The confusion, frustration, and fear turned to anger within her chest.

“Why are you here?” she asked Burke. “You’ve been shadowing me for this job, and it’s ridiculous at this point. You have to know that I’m not going to stay yes!”

“I still have hope.”

Burke wasn’t about to tell her that the Five disagreed with him. He thought that they should give her time to come to terms with her destiny. They wanted results immediately. Wren wasn’t giving them that. He had a few more tricks up his sleeve, but eventually, she was going to be on her own.

He looked around her barren apartment with a soft sigh. She did live in a dreary place. The overgrown plants that hung from the ceiling made it look like a jungle. He could barely see her kitchen from where he sat, but he could see the tub with its curtains that trailed the ground next to it.

The last time he had come here, she had been attempting to relax within the warm waters. Glancing down at her, he thought it likely she needed the same thing now. Her arms were wrapped around her waist and her toes were curled between his feet.

But how to ask her? He couldn’t force her back into the tub he had tried to freeze her in. Nor could he justify asking her to take a bath in front of him.

“Would a bath warm you up?” A sheepish expression crossed his face before it was wiped away.

Wren stared at him. Her brain worked overtime as she tried to make sense of the words. She was fine in her cocoon made of brightly colored woolens and crumpled linen. Why was he asking her to get out of that and into the tub? Her confusion must have shown on her face.

He nodded towards the tub. “A bath.”

“You would need to leave for that,” she responded instantly.

“I don’t plan on leaving. Malachi might still be hunting you.”

“Then no bath,” she muttered. As though to punctuate her words, Wren wiggled deeper into the fabric around her.

He hadn’t expected her to argue quite so much. Wren could see the confusion that crossed across his face before he carefully wiped it away. The poor man didn’t know who he was dealing with. She would be fine, just as she was always fine. As long as E came back, as long as her heart rate slowed down, as long as her mind would stop giving her flashbacks of running.

Maybe she wasn’t handling this very well.

He sighed and leaned forward once more. His hands were stronger than most. Fingers, which were almost graceful, curled around each other. She could see the callouses on the tips of most of them.

He had strong hands. Comforting hands. Hands that were now rummaging through the quilt that was tangled around her legs to grab them once more. Her eyes drifted shut as his thumbs dug into the arch of her foot.

“How did you know to do that?” she whispered.

“Because I used to have three sisters,” he responded. “They used to make me do all manner of things.”

He had sisters. Of course he did. Wren hadn’t thought he would have a family because she hadn’t really been thinking of him as a person.

Tears pricked her eyes. Wren always had a certain stern quality about her that originated from many years alone. She had withdrawn so firmly into her mind that she was responding mechanically to everyone around her.

But he had a family. Sisters. People who loved him, and he was still protecting her. Wren couldn’t imagine doing that when there were other people worried about her.

She refused to be embarrassed about her reaction. Rather than letting him know she was upset, Wren tried to hide a sniffle by itching her nose.

“Come now.” He didn’t look up from his hands. “Everything’s going to be alright.”

“How can you be sure? The world’s going to shit around me. Some monster is coming out of his grave, and I’m supposed to be part of some prophecy? I don’t know how to help. I don’t want to help. I like my boring life with my simple shop.”

“And when it’s over you’ll return to that simple life.”

“But I won’t.” She wasn’t certain that she could. Life had always had a way of changing on her at the worst times. “Pitch is bringing something new onto the market that’s going to be stealing customers away from me. I’ll have to change my career. I’ve always been a Juice maker.”

“Even when you were little?” He looked up at her.

“I suppose. It was what I was good at. E started training me when I was very little.”

“E trained you?”

“Like any teacher.” She wiggled slightly until one of her arms popped free. “Making Juice wasn’t hard. E does all the work really.”

“I wonder if it’s a witch,” he murmured.

“There aren’t any witches or warlocks left.” She shoved her hair away from her face. “They were all wiped out when the dimensions first combined.”

He should know that. Everyone knew that. When the world’s had first smashed together, there had been a lot of turmoil. Many creatures were destroyed by humans that had overpowered their creatures. Any human using magic was a dangerous thing.

Wren didn’t want to think about what was going to happen now. It always seemed as though someone was trying to end the world. She’d heard the legends more than enough, as had everyone.

She needed to distract herself. “You said you had three sisters?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

“Had?”

“That’s a sad story. You don’t need to hear any more sad stories today.”

“I’d like to.” Her hand plunged back into the heat of her blankets. “I don’t know who you are, Burke. And I’d like to think that one can understand a person from their past.”

“And you won’t be sharing your past with me?”

“You show me yours, and I”ll show you mine.” A ghost of a smile tilted the edges of